Final Food Paper:

The American way of food is generally easy access food for cheap. The media manipulates citizens into thinking fast and convenient food is good but really the food we eat comes from the industrialized farms and the mistreated animals. Food corporations will go to extreme lengths to maximize profit.

Industrialization helps speed up the process of producing mass amounts of food. The movie, "Vroom! Farming For Kids" shows how farming has been industrialized. Extreme machines are used to pick crops and tend the farm where there is little work for a lot of food at a fast pace resulting in lots of profit. But replacing people with machinery used by fossiln fuels polluting the air as said in the article. The article, "Industrial Food is Cheap," states that the pesticids and hormones used to produce the 'best' kind of food is an input to the cancer epidemic. Whereas, if organic foods were produced, that would elimilate the use of chemicals thus decreasing the disease rate. Industrialized food is NOT cheap because although it is cheap in money, in the long run it affects the planet and all the hormones used affects us Americans who eat the food leading to risk of diseases. Food companies are willing to risk the health of humans and the well being of our planet in order to gain profit.

In "Unser Taglich Brot" (our daily bread) shows how fruits produced through industrialization. They are grown in a controlled environment so the apples do not get dirty and once they are picked they go straight to the factory to get packaged, then shipped to the grocery stores. As opposed to the natural way apples are grown in a natural environment including all the parts of the ecosystem which are apart of their natural production. Capitalism forces corporations to industrialize America's production of food to increase profits.

The video, "Meatrix" is about a pig who does not know the way he is being mistreated and what is going to happen. A cow, Moofius, informs him that the life he thought was decent is actually very cruel and will lead him to his death to be turned into a burger. "Family farm is just a fantasy," animals are not being treated like the ideal farm, raising their animals with care. The animals in industrialized farms never see sunlight or even touch ground, they are kept in small tightly confined cages to then be killed and slaughtered, 5000 cows are slaughtered per day so corporations can gain profits.

The way this is conveyed in the video "Cows with guns," is that they animals "eat to grow, grow to die." In this video, the cows try to rebel and escape so they can be free and they say, "We will run free with the buffalo or die," because cows probably do not know that there exists a better life than they are living, they do not get to make that decision so they are forced to eat and live in their own manure. Because farms tending animals incompetently, the manure (12 million pounds of it) is not being taken care of and is leaking into rivers causing water pollution. Food corporations will pollute the water and abuse the animals if that is what it takes to maximize profits.

In the Coalition of Immokalee workers, the migrant farm workers are being treated unfairly as well. Because they are immigrants, they do not get paid very much and have little to no power, so they are forced to work tomato picking. Companies take advantage of migrant workers and expoit them to gain profits.

Grocery stores, which are chains from food corporations, tend to push foods that taste or look good to the consumer meaning food with sugars, salts, and fats, these are the general ingredients in products that react with the human body to make you want more salty, fatty, sugary foods. In the snacks aisle, the chocolate chip cookies were at eye level for customers to see while the saltine crackers were at the bottom. And in the fruits and vegetable sections the fruits had to look shiny, colorful, and appealing. The food corporations use advertisement strategies to manipulate food buyers to buy more food to get more money.

In the video where Pollan is a guest on the Colbert show on comedy central, the discussion is basically an argument between Colbert, the typical American, and Pollan who is against food corporations and food processing. As Pollan suggested that a healthy meal would be something home cooked, while Colbert replied, are you trying to "undream the dream"? implying that the generl American dream (in the case of food) is to have your food already prepared so life can be more convenient for us so we do not have to spend time making the food. The media in the United States convinces citizens that the ability to get food fast and easy is good because it is cheap and accessible. The media manipulating citizens helps companies gain profit.

Shown in movies, "Vroom!...," "Unser Taglich Brot," videos, "Meatrix," "Cows With Guns," "Pollan vs Colbert," article "Industrialized Food is Cheap," and what I have learned about grocery stores, fast food places and CIW, food corporations go to great lengths to make profit through industrialization, animal cruelty, and manipulation.